Tuesday, March 3

Frugal tip....

Use the hair that your cat sheds to make a whole new cat!

This new cat won't eat or poop, so it will be the most frugal pet EVER!

In case you're wondering, this is the result of our new Furminator -- a tool that gets at pets' undercoat (which is what falls out) to prevent shedding/hairballs. And, yes, this was all in one sitting. It took about an hour, and kept getting funnier as the pile grew.

This isn't our first Furminator, unforunately. Sandy, with her evil machinations, managed to hide the first one from me. (In other words, we lost it. And, despite having searched the apartment three or four times, we still haven't found the damn thing.)

The stubborn and frugal part of me refused to buy a new one, because of the universal law: As soon as you give up and buy a replacement, the original one gets found. But after 9 months and the beginning of shedding season, we decided it was money well spent.

I do like this tool because it's pretty efficient (when you've used a grooming tool in the last 9 months, anyway) and it doesn't hurt the animal.

Even so, Sandy let me know in her own way that she was done with grooming for awhile. That is to say, she hissed, clawed at my hand and thereby drew blood from my index finger. Lil' turd!

I bet my new cat won't do that. Well, I know my new cat won't. She won't have any claws, or paws to speak of! Just lots and lots of fur! And the new cat won't meow constantly every time I leave the room, or go down the hall for a moment. Though it is nice to have a fan club...

On a side note, I was joking with an old friend over email about cat shedding. I said something about knitting a new cat out of all the hair. Apparently, she'd actually bothered to try and spin the stuff into yarn for her knitting purposes. (Yeah, didn't think you could get creepier than making a new cat, didja?)

First off, if she had remembered her fairy tales right, she would have tried to spin it into gold. Silly girl. Secondly, apparently the hair really didn't want to be a cohesive yarn. So what little she succeeded in making broke easily.

So let this be a lesson to you: Do NOT use your cat's shed hair to make yarn. Do the smart thing and just make a back-up cat!

Oh, and to give you a better senes of proportion about just how much came off this lil kitty of mine (who's about 5-6 pounds, max), I took a picture after balling it up:

Meanwhile, we're keeping this Furminator in plain view, so it doesn't "disappear" like the first one. We're actually considering using one of our many extraneous cords to tie it to the sofa leg. (A friend of mine did this with a bed post and his remote control. It seemed hilarious at first, but over time, as he never had to hunt for the remote, it seemed brilliant!)

And since it's every girl's prerogative to make people look at pictures of her cat and mumble "Oh... cute! Did you make that bonnet yourself?" I present a shot of the hair-source (aka Sandy) in one of her more adorable sleeping positions:

8 Comments:

Too cute. DH bought a furminator for our choco lab. ( who knew they shed so much?) Weighing in at 90lbs I think we have brushed off enough to make a Lhasa or two. :) I use a different type of wire brush on my cat that had a price tag of one third the furminator but works well on him. As much joy that our pets bring us some side effects are pretty gross aren't they? :)

Just think: Two Lhasas for the price of one Furminator! Technically, given how much pets shed, probably two a year. It could be a whole side business!

But, yes, our cat is quite adorable but also gross. At some point, I am determined to get some video proof that she is the. loudest. groomer. EVER. Seriously, you can hear her from across the room. She also meows constantly and snores. Once in a great while, she'll even hiccup. I think she has a Napoleon complex or something...

Also, dunno what you paid for a Furminator, but I was happy to find one for under $20 this time. I seem to recall it was closer to $30 last time I bought. Still, it sounds like the wire brush is a good bargain. If this Furminator goes missing, I'll have to message you for more info!

This is why I have a poodle this time around. Dog's hair stays on his body where it belongs until I decide to attack him with scissors or the clippers.

As a teen I had a Samoyed and you can definitely card, spin and knit with the fur from their undercoat. The thing is, I have enough on my plate right now without having to spend hours every day, grooming a dog. Plus, they're a lot bigger, messier and need a lot more activity than Dog does.

As for cute sleeping pet pics, just you wait until I post the picture I have of Dog cuddled up with Pinky, the pink Webkinz poodle!

And, as a total aside, have you checked out Trent's roundup today? I'd be interested in your reaction to the linked post on "lifestyle diseases and PF". I'm bothered by it but am having a Buffy "Fire bad" kind of day where the words just aren't flowing.

I do love my furminator. They're pretty widely available. Amazon has some for sale. I went through PetSense I think it was called. It was just about $19 I believe. Very quick shipping!

Shevy,

I've been having a lot of those kinds of days lately. So I totally feel ya. And I hadn't checked out Trent's roundup. He's not really on my reading list for reasons best not gotten into. But if he is talking about PF/life illness, I will be quite interested to see just what he has to say.

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About Me

My husband and I both have chronic health problems that have put us in debt, both because of doctor bills and from a reduced ability to work. We've moved to Phoenix, which has helped some of my husband's conditions. But it will be awhile before we can truly be out of debt.

I write this blog because not everyone frivolously consumed his way into debt. Not everyone can be, as I like to say, the Martha Stewart of frugality.

I try to use my blog to explore frugality in an imperfect world, because I think that's a lot more realistic. Even people without chronic health problems can have life overrun their best frugal intentions.